Visualization of particles in a cylindrical tube filled with

model mortal using ultra-fast NMR imaging

Harumichi Kyotoh∗, Takeshi Yamamoto∗∗, Yasuhiko Yamamoto∗
and Katsumi Kose∗ ∗ ∗
∗ Institute of Engineering Mechanics, University of Tsukuba,
∗ ∗Master Program in Engineering, University of Tsukuba,
∗ ∗ ∗Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tsukuba,
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan

November, 1997

Abstract
Particle motions in the model mortal are observed by ultra-fast NMR imaging tech-
niques. The model mortal has a property of the Bingham liquid as well as the viso-elastic
property. Hence, particle adheres to the wall surface of a vertical cylindrical tube during
the sedimentation. Here, the mechanism of the adhesion is discussed from the experimen-
tal results. On the other hand, it is found that the particle velocity distribution of the
piston experiment, which is the experiment that the liquid is pushed by a piston, is quite
different from that of the sedimentation even if the speed of the piston is small.

1 INTRODUCTION
High performance concrete is the concrete which can enter into the reinforcing rods and com-
plicated structures without vibrations(Okamura, et. al(1993)). The mortal is required to have
the following properties in order to avoid the blockage. One is high viscosity which reduces
the aggregation due to segregation and strengthen the lubrication force when the aggregates
collide with each other at an isthmus. Another is plasticity, by which the sedimentation due to
gravity is suppressed. Hence, the liquid, which is a mixing of tomato catsup and water annexed
by cellulose, is used as the model mortal. The flow fields and particle motions interior of the
pipe were visualized by Nuclear Magnetic Method(Kyotoh, H.(1996)). In chapter 3, it is found
that spherical particles have a tendency to be attracted to the wall and fall along the vertical
wall. Fundamental patterns of particle motions, such as the interaction between particle and
solid boundary, many-body problem, migration of particles and so on, in a cylindrical tube

1
filled with the model mortal are investigated, so that the aggregation as well as the blockage
in a pipe flow will be elucidated from these processes.

2 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
Applying high-speed Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Method(NMR), which has been developed
recently by Kose, K(1994), particles moving in the interior of a pipe can be visualized without
disturbing the flow. Figure 1 shows the experimental apparatus. Visualized region is the cross
section of the vertical tube with area 32mm(32mm. It is possible to scan the flow fields both
vertically and horizontally. Piston is installed in order to push the model mortal, by which
particle motions coupled with the velocity distribution of flow is investigated.

z=00 mm

Cylindrical tube
-50

26mm

-100
Piston

-150

R= 4mm

32mm -200
Visualized
area R= 5.6mm

r=0 2 4 6 8 10 12 13mm
Figure 3 Sedimentation of a particle in a
cylindrical tube
32mm Solid line and broken line show the path of a
Figure 1 Experimental apparatus of sphere with R= 4mm and 5.6mm, respectively.
flow visualization by NMR

Two sizes of nylon sphere with 5.6mm and 4.0mm in diameter, are used in the present
experiment. Their specific gravity is 1.140g/cm3. The mixing of tomato catsup and water
annexed by cellulose is used as a model mortal, whose density is 1.009g/cm3. Figure 2 shows
the stress-shear velocity curve measured by a viscometer. The graph indicates that the vis-
cosity=0.14Pa(s and the yield stressy=0.82Pa. We could not measure the elastic effect of the
liquid, such as shear wave velocity and normal stresses. The normal stresses, however, seems
to be small since the Weisenberg effect of the liquid could not be observed.

2
3 SEDIMENTATION OF A SINGLE SPHERE IN A
VERTICAL TUBE
It is known that a particle in a visco-elastic fluid is attracted to the wall because of the normal
stress or the shear-thinning property of the liquid(Joseph, D. D. et. al(1994)). The same
phenomenon is observed in the present experiment, which will be guessed by the fact that
the existence of the yield stress indicates a strong shear thinning property of the liquid. As
mentioned in the introduction, the yield stress is important for the prevention of the aggregate
segregation. On the other hand, however, it causes a blockage because aggregates tend to move
near the pipe wall. Figure 3 shows the particle trajectories in the vertical tube for various
initial positions. The diameter of sphere is 4.0mm and 5.6mm, respectively. Sphere is attracted
to the wall in a straight line with the inclination angle 1/10 from the vertical axis.

Stress(Pa) τx 1 x 3
5
Wall
4 σx 3 x 3 Sphere
0 x3
3 U
µ = 0.14 Pa ⋅ s Normal stress
σx 3 x 3
2 τx 1 x 3
Tangential stress
1 τy = 0.89 Pa
x1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 1/s
Shear velocity U
Figure 2 The stress-shear velocity curve of Figure 4 Schematic view of the stresses aroud a sphere
the model mortal

Joseph, D. D. et. al(1994) discussed the attraction of sphere to the vertical wall in visco-
elastic fluids, where he mentioned the normal stresses cause a sphere to attract to the wall.
Model mortal used in our experiment, however, has little Weisenberg effect. Hence, the Bing-
ham model will be investigated whether it can describe the present phenomena or not. In
our experiment, two non-dimensional parameters Re = ρUa /µ and B = τy /ρU are given by
Re = O(0.1) and B = O(10), so that the plastic property of liquid dominates the phenomena
and the inertia force is neglected. The balance of the force in the Bingham model is described
by
∂p
∂  
0=− + 2(µ + Λ)Em n ,
∂xn m
∂xm
 
τy 1 ∂vm ∂vn
Λ ≡ √ , Em n ≡ + (1)
2Π 2 ∂xn ∂xm
Note that the viscosity depends on the strain energy and no deformation occurs if the strain
energy is less than the critical value. To understand the mechanism of this phenomenon in our
experiment, the stresses around a sphere is described schematically in figure 4. If there are
fore-aft symmetry of the stresses around a sphere, no force to the wall direction works. On the

3
other hand, this asymmetry can not be generated if the Bingham liquid is considered because
eq. (1) has a symmetry with respect to the x3 -axis. We observed a phenomenon appearing in
the model mortal which imply the strong memory effect. That is, in the successive experiments
of the sedimentation of a sphere, different particles described the coincident trajectory. This
fact means that after the passage of the first sphere, the viscosity of the liquid in the path
becomes lower. Joseph, D. D. et al.(1994) proposed the model, which described the memory of
shear thinning, of the form
 
∇ ∇
λ1 σ m n + σm n = 2µ Em n + λ2 E m n (2)

where λ1 and λ2 denote the relaxation and retardation times, respectively. Superscript ’ ∇ ’
indicates the upper convective derivative(Joseph, D. D.(1990)). The asymmetry with respect to
the flow direction is involved in the upper convective derivative. We will evaluate this attraction
through these equations.

4 VISUALIZATION OF PARTICLES FOR THE SED-

IMENTATION AND THE FLOW PUSHED BY PIS-
TON
To study the particle distribution in the vertical tube, the model concrete, which aggregation
rate in volume is 0.2, is filled in the tube and the sedimentation of particle is observed. Also,
to check the influence of velocity distribution of flow on the particle movements, the model
concrete is pushed by a piston as shown in figure 1.
Figure 5 shows the visualizations of particles at the horizontal and the vertical cross sections
for both the sedimentation and the flow pushed by a piston. Here, nylon sphere with diam-
eter 5.6mm is used as an aggregate. The piston is moving vertically downward with velocity
1.9mm/s. Particles have a tendency to adhere to the wall surface for both cases. Figure 6 shows
the ratio of the number of particles passing the horizontal coordinate. The density distribu-
tion of particles seems not to be different for these cases. The velocity distributions, however,
have big differences between them as seen from figure 7. At first, particle velocity becomes
larger due to the flow generated by a piston even if the piston velocity is subtracted from the
particle velocity. Secondly, the upwelling flow observed in the experiment of the sedimentation
disappears for the piston problem.

5 VISUALIZATION OF PARTICLES PASSING A HOR-

IZONTAL ROD
To see the interaction between particles and an obstacle, cylindrical rod with diameter 2mm is
located horizontally in the tube. In figure 8, at the center of the photographs, the cross section
of the rod can be seen. Figure 8 (a) shows the sedimentation of a single sphere. The sphere
speeds down near the rod, dramatically. On the other hand, spheres in the model concrete is
passing well because of the discharge due to the piston as seen from figure 8(b).

4
 N/dr
Vz(mm/s)
0.5 6

5 Piston
0.4
4
0.3
Piston Wall Wall 3 Wall
0.2 2 1.9

Sedimentation 1 Sedimentation
0.1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 r -10 -5 0 5 10 r(mm)
r(mm)
Figure 6 Ratio of the number of particles passing the Figure 7 Particle velocity distribution across the tube
the horizontal
horizontal coordinate
coordinate
r r Here, Vz is the velocity of the z-direction taken positive
The solid and the broken lines show the cases of vertically downward. The solid and the broken lines show the
the
Thesedimentation and thelines
solid and the broken flowshow
pushedtheby a piston,
cases of cases of the sedimentation and the flow pushed by a piston ,
respectively.
the sedimentation and the flow pushed by a piston, respectively.
respectively.

6 SUMMARY
To investigate the blockage of the high-performance concrete, the reological property of the
mortal need to be measured in detail so as to predict the behavior of the aggregates in the
concrete. For instance, if the shear-thinning property and the memory effect contribute to the
adhesion of particles, the material property might be changed by mixing an additive.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to give our appreciation to Mr. Iidaka, M., the
technician of University of Tsukuba, for his assistance during the preparation of the experi-
mental facility.

References
[1] Joseph, D. D. (1990), Fluid dynamics of viscoelastic liquids, Springer-Verlag, 755p.

[2] Joseph, D. D., Y. J. Liu, M. Poletto, and J. Feng(1994), Aggregation and dispersion of
spheres falling in viscoelastic liquids, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech., Vol. 54, pp. 45-86.

[3] Kose, K.(1994), Spatial mapping of velocity power spectra in Taylor-Couette flow using
ultra-fast NMR imaging, Phys. Rev. Lett., No. 72, pp. 1467-1470.

[4] Kyotoh, H., K. Kose, Y. Yamamoto, et. at (1996), Blockage mechanism of model concrete
in a taper tube by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance methods, Int. Conf. Urban Eng. in Asian
Cities in the 21st Century, pp. 87-92.

[5] Okamura, H., K. Maekawa and K. Ozawa(1993), High-performance concrete, Gihou-Dou

Pub., p. 2-14(in Japanese).

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